Spoilt middle-class children more aware of rights than responsibilities behind rising violence in classrooms

'Need respect': Dr Mary Bousted, of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, says some pupils have a 'total disregard' for school rules

Over-indulged children more aware of their rights than responsibilities are fuelling violence in the classroom, teachers warn.

One in three have dealt with physical violence from pupils during the current academic year, including punching, kicking, biting, pushing and scratching.

And middle-class children are just as likely to be the culprits as those from tougher backgrounds.

Fifty-seven per cent of those surveyed by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said pupils’ behaviour had deteriorated over the past five years and that parents have failed to instil respect for authority.

One assistant told the survey she had been hit in the back by a pupil ‘totally unexpectedly’ after asking her to put a book away.

‘I was so winded and hurt that I couldn’t carry on that day,’ she added.

One secondary teacher said a female pupil had threatened to ‘kick the smile off my face’ while another was forced to intervene after a nine-year-old threw a six-year-old on to the school field.

A Surrey-based primary teacher reported: ‘I experience low-level disruption every day from a core group of six pupils.

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‘I feel I am child-minding throughout the school day – just trying to keep the rest of the class safe.’

Staff said family breakdown and a failure by parents to act as role models for their children contributed to poor classroom discipline.

Fuelling violence: One in three teachers have had to tackle physical abuse from children this academic year, many of whom are from middle-class families, says the ATL (picture posed by models)

A respondent from a secondary school said: ‘Pupils are often confused, lack stable families, lack discipline or discipline is inconsistently applied.’

Victoria Malcolm, a primary school teacher, said: ‘Pupils know that there is little school staff can do to enforce discipline. They are not “afraid” for want of a different word.

‘Behaviour folders, traffic light charts, even talking to parents does nothing to encourage certain children to improve their behaviour.’

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, said: ‘A minority of children are very aware of their rights, have a total disregard of school rules and are rather less aware of their responsibility for their own learning and how to show respect to staff and other students.

'This can apply as much to over-indulged middle-class children as those from challenging families.

‘Teachers need to work with parents to encourage good behaviour and parents should be acting as good role models by supporting staff and helping them create a more positive learning environment for their children.’

ATL members from inner London will say next week that governments have failed to introduce effective ways to deal with bad behaviour since corporal punishment was abolished.

They will tell the union’s annual conference that the discipline methods teachers can use ‘remain totally inadequate’.

The most common forms of discipline used were calling or summoning children’s parents, removal from lessons and warnings, the survey found.

However, independent schools tended to favour using detentions and suspensions as well as warnings and summoning parents.

Thirty-three per cent of staff surveyed said pupils had been suspended or expelled from their school during the current academic year – a figure which rose to 51 per cent among those at state-funded academies in England.

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Spoilt middle-class children more aware of rights than responsibilities behind rising violence in classrooms